Twitter accused of legal violations during mass layoffs

Twitter Inc. faced a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing it of illegally laying off employees without former notice period. The layoffs started after Elon Musk bought the company last year, leading to its massive job cuts.

The accusation, filed in San Francisco, claims that Twitter laid off a huge number of workers in November, who were employed by staffing firm TEKsystems Inc., without the 60 days of advance notice, according to US and California law.

There are five other cases of the same accusations that are currently pending, with the accusation that Twitter is targeting female workers and employees with disabilities in the layoffs.

Twitter laid off around 3,700 employees, half of its workforce, in November, while hundreds more subsequently resigned.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represents the plaintiffs in all cases against Twitter, said in an email: “while Elon Musk seems to think he’s saving the company money by avoiding these obligations, we plan to show him that not meeting his responsibilities can be a lot more costly.”

She also said that she has filed complaints on behalf of more than 1,700 former Twitter employees and contractors who had signed agreements to arbitrate legal disputes.

Liss-Riordan said that workers from TEKsystems did not sign arbitration agreements. She also represents workers who have filed complaints against the company with a U.S. labour board claiming they were fired after they criticised the company.